PERTH being selected to host popular agri-food tech event evokeAG 2024, is a clear demonstration of the "power of the people" according to AgriFutures Australia managing director.
In what is a major coup for Western Australia, the conference is expected to attract more than 1500 national and international agrifood innovators including farmers, processors, investors, start-ups, researchers, universities, corporates and government stakeholders.
Due to be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on February 20 and 21, innovators will be able to investigate future possibilities to enhance technology and investment across the agrifood, fibre and fisheries industries at evokeAG 2024.
Speaking at the official launch at Frasers, Kings Park this morning, AgriFutures managing director John Harvey said the board's decision to change from the previously announced location of Melbourne to Perth had been the result of successful lobbying by both government and industry stakeholders.
While Mr Harvey acknowledged the limited capacity of the initially chosen venue in Melbourne had contributed to the decision to move the event to Perth, saying the venue "didn't feel right - it didn't look right", he said the energy of Perth's people also acted as a major drawcard in the city being selected to host.
"In the debrief with the board, after the success of Adelaide, it felt as though we were going back to where we'd come from - going to Melbourne," Mr Harvey said
"There were quite a few (Perth) people who did successful lobbying and I really want to leave you with the message that it works - it absolutely works, because the main reason we are in Perth is because of the energy that we felt when we talked to people in WA about the option of coming here."
evokeAG has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2019, with the 2022 event attracting more than 1600 delegates from 20 countries.
Mr Harvey said the amount of relationships the event had helped foster between agri-tech start-ups and investors was "somewhere in the thousands".
Globally, since 2018, he said the investment in the agri-food tech industry has increased from $2 billion per year to about $50b in 2022.
"You probably wonder why it has increased so rapidly, but the reality is that a lot of the new digital technologies are highly scaleable, so you can deliver the sort of returns that venture capital and other investors look for in some of these high risk areas," Mr Harvey said.
With the past three evokeAG events all selling out, he said there had been a different feel to the most recent event in Adelaide.
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"When we went to Adelaide it just went next level...what we saw in Adelaide was the community coming behind it," Mr Harvey said.
"We ran the main event, an investment dinner and a welcome event, but there were at least 30 other events that we know of that popped up organically around evokeAG.
"Just having been here a couple of times in the last month or so and, particularly yesterday, talking to a number of the corporates, there is an enormous energy here and I can see you really are going to make the most of the opportunity.
"We are going to provide the platform, but really this is your event - it's your city, it's your State and it's your image that you want to project to the rest of the world and the rest of the country."
WA Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis said evokeAG was a massive opportunity to showcase that WA is a great place to visit, invest, trade, live, work and study to the rest of the world.
She highlighted that in recent years there had been an increasing intersection of WA's major economic drivers - resources and energy and agriculture and food.
"Both share similar fundamental challenges and opportunities and we need to continue to drive productivity and innovation, especially around decarbonisation and sustainability, water management, supply chain efficiency and waste management," Ms Jarvis said.
"Together we are 'Team WA' and we are going to maximise this opportunity."
